year of Asa (940)—1 Ki. 16:21-23, 29; see CHRONOLOGY, p. 340.

“Mightiness” is attributed to King Omri. (1 Ki. 16:27) According to lines four through eight of the Moabite Stone, Omri brought Moab into subjection, which domination Ahab continued. (2 Ki. 3:4) Midway in his reign, Omri wisely moved his capital away from Tirzah, which he had found so easy to capture. He purchased the mountain owned by Shemer, well suited for fortifying, and built there a new city, Samaria, which was able to withstand long sieges. (1 Ki. 16:23, 24) Cuneiform inscriptions likewise call him its founder, and it was also his burial place. (1 Ki. 16:28) In the course of his reign Omri met with various setbacks, such as having to surrender some cities to the king of Syria (1 Ki. 20:34), and paying tribute to Assyria, he being the first Israelite king to do so.

Religiously, Omri continued the downward trend of the northern kingdom; he continued Jeroboam’s idolatry; in fact, he “kept doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah and came to do worse than all who were prior to him.” (1 Ki. 16:25, 26) Some two hundred years later, through Micah Jehovah condemned Israel for following “the statutes of Omri.”—Mic. 6:16.

4. A Judahite whose descendant lived in Jerusalem following the Babylonian exile.—1 Chron. 9:3, 4.

ON

The name of a person and a place.

1. A son of Peleth and a principal man of the tribe of Reuben. (Num. 16:1) He was among those raising a protest against Moses and Aaron, but his name does not appear among the rebels in their later speeches to Moses nor when they were punished by Jehovah with destruction. (Vss. 2, 3, 12-14, 23-35) This may be due to his playing a very subordinate part in the rebellion or it may even indicate that he withdrew from it following Moses’ initial rebuking of the conspirators.

2. An ancient and renowned city in Egypt, located about ten miles (c. 16 kilometers) NE of Cairo, on the E bank of the Nile and near the point where the river’s waters divide to begin the formation of the Delta region. In Egyptian records the city’s name was written as iwnw, while Assyro-Babylonian records mention it as Anu or Unu. The Egyptian name is thought to mean “city of the pillar,” perhaps referring to the obelisks (tall, tapering columns topped by a pyramid-shaped point) for which the city was famous; or the name may relate to the sacred stone (called the benben) connected with the worship of the sun-god Ra (or Re). The Greeks called the city Heliopolis, meaning “City of the Sun,” due to its being the chief center of Egyptian sun worship.

On first appears in the Bible records as the city of Potiphera, priest of On, whose daughter Asenath was given to Joseph as his wife. (Gen. 41:45, 50) The name Potiphera itself includes the name of Ra the sun-god. This incident indicates that the popular idea that the so-called “Hyksos rulers” had ravaged and desecrated the Egyptian temples about this time has little to support it.

In course of time the priesthood of On became very wealthy, rivaling the priesthood of Memphis in this respect and being surpassed only by the priesthood of Thebes (Biblical No-amon). Connected with its temple to the sun, a school was operated for training priests and for the teaching of medicine. Greek philosophers and scholars were drawn there to learn the priestly theology and On became celebrated as a center of Egyptian wisdom.

The prophet Jeremiah was inspired to foretell that King Nebuchadnezzar would overrun Egypt and “break to pieces the pillars of Beth-shemesh, which is in the land of Egypt.” (Jer. 43:10-13) Beth-shemesh corresponds somewhat to the Greek name Heliopolis and means “House of the Sun.” Hence the reference here is likely to the city of On, and the “pillars” that were to be broken may well refer to the many obelisks around the temple of the sun.

Ezekiel’s prophecy contains a similar warning. (Ezek. 30:10, 17) Here the Hebrew vowel pointing of the name varies from that of Genesis so that the name literally is “Aven” (Heb., ʼaʹwen). Some scholars suggest that this was done as a play on words, since Aven means “wickedness; idolatry” and On was a center of idolatry.

This may also be the case at Isaiah 19:18, where the Masoretic text refers to one of the “five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing to Jehovah” as “The City of Tearing Down [Heb., ʽIr ha-Heʹres].” The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah has ʽIr ha-hheʹres, meaning “City of the Sun” and thus pointing to On (Heliopolis). Here again there may be an intentional play on words, Heʹres (tearing down) being substituted for Hheʹres (another Hebrew word for “sun,” less common than sheʹmesh) in view of Jehovah’s intention to destroy the idolatrous city of On. The paraphrase of this portion of the verse found in the Aramaic Targums reads: “(City of) the House of the Sun, that is to be destroyed.”

Besides the foretold destructive invasion by Nebuchadnezzar, On (Heliopolis) evidently suffered a further blow when Cambyses II conquered Egypt (according to Strabo, Greek geographer who lived near the start of the Common Era). By Strabo’s time Heliopolis had lost its position of importance and was partially deserted. Today, the village called Matariyah occupies the ancient site, and all that remains of the earlier splendor is a single obelisk of red granite dating from the reign of Sesostris I. Other obelisks from Heliopolis are now to be found in New York, London and Rome.

ONAM

(Oʹnam) [vigorous].

1. Last of the five listed sons of Horite sheik Shobal, and grandson of the Horites’ forefather Seir.—Gen. 36:20, 21, 23; 1 Chron. 1:40.

2. A son of Jerahmeel and a link in the Jerahmeelite genealogy in the tribe of Judah; his mother’s name was Atarah.—1 Chron. 2:26, 28.

ONAN

(Oʹnan) [vigorous].

A son of Judah, his second by the Canaanite daughter of Shua. (Gen. 38:2-4; 1 Chron. 2:3) After Onan’s childless older brother Er was put to death by Jehovah for wrongdoing, Onan was told by Judah to perform brother-in-law marriage with Er’s wife Tamar. If a son was produced, he would not be the founder of Onan’s family, and the firstborn’s inheritance would belong to him as an heir to Er; whereas if no heir came, Onan would get the inheritance for himself. When Onan had relations with Tamar, he “wasted his semen on the ground” rather than giving it to her. This was not an act of masturbation on the part of Onan, for the account says “when he did have relations with his brother’s wife” he spilled his semen. Apparently it was a case of “coitus interruptus,” in which Onan purposely prevented ejaculation of his semen into Tamar’s genital tract. For his disobedience to his father, his covetousness and his sin against the divine arrangement of marriage, not for self-abuse, Onan, himself also childless, was put to death by Jehovah.—Gen. 38:6-10; 46:12; Num. 26:19.

ONESIMUS

(O·nesʹi·mus) [profitable, useful].

A runaway slave whom Paul helped to become a Christian. Onesimus had been a servant of Philemon, a Colossian Christian, but had run away from Colossae to Rome. He may even have first robbed his master in order to make the journey. (Col. 4:9; Philem. 18) It is quite possible that he had met or at least heard of Paul through Philemon; for, though no visit of Paul to Colossae on the missionary tours is specifically mentioned, Paul did travel through the general area and was acquainted with Philemon. (Acts 18:22, 23; Philem. 5, 19, 22) At any rate, in some unstated